CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A man has pleaded not guilty to killing an Iowa high school student in 1979. Records say 65-year-old Jerry Burns filed a written plea Friday in Linn County District Court. The charge: first-degree murder. His trial starting date has not been set. He remains in custody, pending $5 million bail.

Police arrested the Manchester business owner on Dec. 19 , 39 years to the day after 18-year-old Michelle Martinko was killed. Her body was found the next day inside her family’s car at a Cedar Rapids mall. She had been stabbed in the face and chest.

Police say investigators matched a blood sample from the crime scene with a sample taken from Burns.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — The Council Bluffs City Council has approved a resolution adopting the plan for an indoor turf facility for soccer and other sports. The Daily Nonpareil reports that the council unanimously approved the Iowa West Sports Plex plan on Monday. The facility will be built just northwest of the Mid-America Center. The Iowa West Foundation and other grant sources will provide funding for the $7 million project . The facility will be operated and managed by the Council Bluffs Soccer Club. The fields will be used for a variety of sports, including youth baseball, softball, soccer and flag football.

(Radio Iowa) — We’re only a little over a month into winter and gasoline prices in Iowa are starting to gradually climb again. Nick Jarmusz, a spokesman for Triple-A-Iowa, says it’s elementary economics — as supplies start to be squeezed and demand begins to rise, prices will go up. “We’re beginning to see the very earliest impact of the agreement that was made last year by OPEC and Russia to slow down production which is just now beginning to tighten up the global supply a little bit,” Jarmusz says.

A few weeks ago, some Iowa gas stations were offering self-serve unleaded at prices in the one-90s, but most are now over the two-dollar mark. “More people, even in the depths of the winter here, are driving because more people are employed and the economy is doing better,” Jarmusz says. “The supply and demand balance is shifting a bit back more towards higher gas prices.” Recent political upheavals in the South American country of Venezuela may also be a factor in the gas prices in Iowa. “There’s been some talk about a possible boycott of Venezuelan oil until the situation there fully transitions with the regime, but none of that has taken place yet,” he says.

Gas prices in Iowa are averaging $2.07 a gallon statewide, which is about 20-cents below the national average and 50-cents lower than the state average a year ago. Iowa’s most expensive gas is in Dubuque, at $2.18 a gallon while the cheapest gas is in Sioux City, at $1.98.